The ep08 Golf and its Champions

This is Jimmy Powers coming your way with another Grantland Rice story. Oh folks, this is Jimmy Powers. Thus far, the life of Grantland Rice has depicted in his autobiography the Tumal and the Shouting has taken us behind the scenes with some of the greats of sports

golden age, the fabulous 20s. Today, however, we're going back almost to the dawn's early light of golf in America. We're going to meet the fellows who, through their keen and courageous play began to make America golf conscious. At present, we have more than five million golfers in this country. But when Grantland Rice took up the game in nineteen-nine, probably not more

than five thousand people in this country had even swung a golf club, much less tried to master it. I'm talking about the days prior to World War I. So with the bow to the spirit of Grantland Rice, which will remain green and vibrant as long as there is a sports-loving America, we pick up, in first person, another chapter from the

tumult and the shouting. Golf lends itself nicely to the 19th hole, a place for refreshment, happy talk, and commiseration. I've got a host of stories there not only from and about golfers but with headliners of every sport and business. Peel down to his shorts, a refreshing drink in one hand, an attested scorecard in the other. It's

hard for a man to be anything but himself. Three amateurs from 1907 through 1916 played leading roles in the golf destiny of this country, Jerry Travers, Chick Evans, and Francis We Met. They won both our amateur and open titles.

Travers was the first on the scene, not physically equipped to reach and hold any sustained hype. He nevertheless won our amateur crown four times in 1970, 1980, and in 1912, 1913, and the open in 1916.